The Good Gym Is Still Running

I think the last time E and I met Ivo Gormley was in 2012, when we had a pleasant dinner together on Great Queen Street talking about what it was like as a Londoner to have the Olympics take place in your own living environment. I knew Ivo from open data work, and his 2009 film ‘Us Now’ on how online tools were allowing new models of social organisation. We came to talk about Good Gym then, which he started as a non-profit after ‘Us Now’, along the lines of what he explored in that film. The concept of Good Gym is that you combine running with a good deed. You run your route through town and the far end of your run is the address of an elderly person in need of social contacts. You bring them a morning newspaper, or have a chat and coffee, and afterwards you run back. You had your exercise, and a social encounter helping someone. The good deeds can be a variety of community activities. Running can be cycling or walking too. Earlier this week we had coffee near Finsbury Park, at the…